Back for the first time since 2019, Virginia’s largest food festival, Broad Appetit, will again stack four blocks of Broad Street with art vendors, 60 Richmond restaurants, and antique dealers. Founded to highlight the local food and art scene, its main draw is the incredibly cheap and incredibly well-crafted mini plates participating restaurants sell for $4 a pop. Each plate competes in Broad Appetit’s food competition, vying for the To Dine For Award (best dish), To Diet For Award (best dessert), and The Healthy Dish Award. Maple and Pine, a local farm-to-table favorite, took the To Diet For Award in 2019 with an almond and strawberry cake with a rhubarb compote and anise creme fraiche. It was their second year in a row winning the award.
This isn’t just southern food, though. Richmond has a variegated, multi-ethnic culinary landscape; Indian street food, West African dishes, Thai, Vietnamese, and many more food traditions have delighted attendees at Broad Appetit. There’s also a farmer’s market, two stages of live music played by local bands, cooking demos, and classes on beekeeping, composting, canning and preserving. The wine and beer here are local, too, and you can try the Virginia ferments at Taste The Local, a sampling event. Proceeds from Broad Appetit benefit FeedMore, a hunger-relief organization in central Virginia. Attendees also have the chance to vote for their favorite vendors in the People’s Choice Competition, so bring a discerning palate and the enthusiasm of Gordon Ramsay.
The Specs
- 40,000 people attended in 2019.
- Admission is free, but bring cash to buy plates.